The forecast on Plume Plotter of what’s coming Penarth’s way from the Barry Incinerator

Emissions from a huge waste incinerator being built at Barry Docks are now being forecast on a website called “Plume Plotter” which claims to show “the current state of air pollution caused by emissions from planned (and existing) incinerators.”

The Plume Plotter shows to what extent the emissions would affect Penarth – in a South Westerly wind – and shows just how badly Penarth would be affected.

In2010 the incinerator [ officially known as Biomass No 2 Gasification Facility Scheme] was originally refused planning permission by the (then Conservative) Vale of Glamorgan Council.

However the Welsh Labour Government upheld an appeal against the Conservative refusal – and allowed the scheme to go ahead – landing the Tory administration the Vale with an £80,000 bill for fighting the scheme.

The Barry Docks incinerator under construction

In 2015 – when the Vale Council was in Labour Control – an AMENDED incinerator scheme for Barry Docks was given formal planning permission and again given the green light by the Welsh Labour Government.

Work on the incinerator got under way – despite the concerns of many local residents in Barry who opposed the Labour-advocated scheme and protests in the streets.

Cllr John Thomas (Conservative St Athan) Leader of the Vale of Glamorgan Council

In May 2017 the Labour administration in the Vale of Glamorgan Council was thrown out of office

A few weeks later Cllr John Thomas Leader of the new Conservative Administration in the Vale Council expressed his concerns about the incinerator scheme

Meanwhile Neil Moore the former leader of the former Labour Vale Council has criticised what he describes as “scaremongering” about the incinerator and “lies” about how the contentious scheme came to get planning permission.

The new Conservative Vale Council was aware that the incinerator had not cleared all its legal hurdles and had not yet been issued with a licence to operate from Natural Resources Wales . The council has now urged National Resources Wales NOT to issue a licence.

The Conservative council has also slapped an enforcement notice on the incinerator following complaints from local residents about excessive noise

Share this:

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

About NewsNet

Penarth Daily News email address dmj@newsnet.uk .
Penarth Daily News is an independent free on-line fair and balanced news service published by NewsNet Ltd covering the town of Penarth in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, UK.
All our news items are based on the information we receive or discover at the time of publication and are published on the basis that they are accurate to the best of our knowledge and belief at that time.
Comments posted on the site by commentators reflect their opinions and are not necessarily shared, endorsed or supported by Penarth Daily News.

Who would live in Sully? You’ve now got Dow Corning, the waste from Hinkley Point, a new nuclear power station across the water and the incinerator soon. Breathe in hard and you might get a puff from aberthaw power station which has been proven to be causing ill-health – but has had the thumbs up for another year and more cash.

I am totally opposed to the incinerator and I am a Labour supporter.

There does appear to appear to be a cultural problem around here though – I have tried to explain hard facts about nuclear waste and if people don’t want to deal with it – they just keep on saying things like ‘the government wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t right’…because that has always worked…

I’m moving.

A doctor in Barry told me once that ‘they’d had more brain tumours’ than they had thought possible’.

Could it be that because south wales is not as densely populated as other areas…that they think they can kill us? It might make economic sense to a hardened businessperson.

I have no political affiliation, but it’s a bit unfair to refer to this as ‘Labour’s Incinerator’. The finances will come totally from the private sector and Labour justb happened to be in control when the planning application came in.

There is a similar incinerator off Ocean Way, alongside the new bypass. I have yet to see a plume of anything coming from its flue, and the building itself is significantly cleaner than the steel processing plant along the road.

Point your investigative magnifying glass towards the visible plume of pollution which stretches across the Severn Estuary in the direction of Rhoose and Aberthaw.

Actually it’s a matter of record that every single Conservative councillor present at the planning application committee voted in favour of this incinerator and together with the vast majority of Labour councillors on the committee forced it through.

Kevin Mahoney rightly points out that both Labour and Conservative Cllrs approved this, letting themselves be conned by officers who said it was an “energy plant”; and called waste wood with paints, plastic coatings, MDF etc, “biomass”.
The 2010 refusal was cross-party, in the teeth of the Conservative planning chair (Jeff James) and officers’ report. The £80,000 costs of the Appeal hearing was not for “fighting the scheme”, but because the Inspector found the pathetic arguments put up by the officers to be without planning merit. eg. noise from bleeping lorries when reversing, rather than excessive noise from the plant operating through the night. And talking of aspirations for clean development (housing; green space) on the Waterfront, but unable to produce plans to show it. Seemingly the Council officers deliberately put up a flimsy case – with the only local politician appearing being Alun Cairns. The officers were concerned to prove their original approval was right and warn Councillors against over-ruling them in future, a ‘lesson’ that Labour’s Fred Johnson kept repeating as committee chair from 2011.